Time’s cover of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie looking like a tough guy with the headline “The Boss” has riled some who saw it as another instance of mafia stereotyping of Italian Americans.

The image alone ignited the controversy because the largely favorable article by Michael Crowley wasn’t even completed when Time decided to release the cover on Wednesday — two days before the mag was set to hit newsstands — to coincide with Christie’s appearances on morning talk shows following his State of the State address.

NBC “Today” co-host Matt Lauer got first crack at Christie, who said he was less than amused and that the photo was “not kind.”

Later on Don Imus’ radio show, Christie said, “I’m reporting Time magazine to the anti-Italian defamation league. I mean look at that thing. It says ‘boss’ underneath. I mean, come on. I can’t wait for that to come home for my kids to see it.”

He also complained that it made him out to be Tony Soprano, the fictional mob boss from the hit HBO series “The Sopranos.”

Time Managing Editor Rick Stengel insisted that the headline was a double entendre, alluding to a powerful boss but also to Christie’s newfound friendship with Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Christie worried that even that friendly reference could backfire and may have damaged his relationship with his new pal.

“You know he’s going to be pissed off at that; I’m going all the way to the back of the line again,” Christie told New Jersey’s Star-Ledger.

During his regular Thursday appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” yesterday, Stengel said, “If his kids don’t recognize him as the boss then he has more problems then he realizes. But I think he’s having some fun with it. We had some fun with it.”

Stengel pointed out that Crowley referred to the now famous episode when President Barack Obama put Christie on the phone with Springsteen, which later led to an embrace when they met. Christie, who has seen Springsteen in concert more than 100 times, teared up at the hug from his rock idol.

Said Stengel, “So all is right with the world when the two bosses are together.”

Hard for ‘Grey’

In a rare turn, the E.L. James’ “Fifty Shades of Grey” trilogy, which has already sold 35 million paperback copies in the US for the Vintage/Anchor imprint of Doubleday and 65 million worldwide, is going to become a hardcover book for the first time.

The normal industry practice is for the lower-priced paperback to come out a year after the hardcover appears.

The Doubleday unit of Random House plans to crank out 200,000 copies of the erotic trilogy that includes the original, as well as “Fifty Shades Darker” and “Fifty Shades Freed.”

The stunning success of the book was a big reason why Random House was able to give a $5,000 Christmas bonus to employees.

The book started as a small independent series put out by The Writers Coffee Shop Publishing House in Australia.

Vintage/Anchor Publisher Anne Messitte kept picking up buzz about the book and eventually contacted agent Valerie Hoskins to hatch a deal to bring it to the US.

The book was derided as “mommy porn” in some quarters, but that didn’t slow its appeal.

“I think it’s a mischaracterization to describe it that way,” said Doubleday spokesman Paul Bogaards. “There’s a great deal of erotica, but people come to the book for the romance as much as the sex. It’s a modern retelling of ‘Beauty and the Beast’.”

Messitte said reader demand prompted the company to make the unusual move to go hardcover a year after the paperback became a sensation. The books will be sold as a trilogy and separately starting Jan. 29.

The publisher is hoping it replaces Godiva chocolates as a Valentine’s Day gift.

Venturing out

David Carey, president of Hearst Magazines, which was one of the few major publishing houses to debut a new title last year, is on the prowl for more titles to launch in the second half of the year.

Playing on the success of the Food Network Magazine and HGTV Magazine, which were both launched in partnership with the Scripps Network, Carey said he is looking for a similar joint venture partner for the next Hearst launch.

“We’re highly interested in joint ventures,” said Carey, who cut his teeth as the launch publisher of Smart Money, which was originally a joint venture between Dow Jones and Hearst, but was folded by News Corp. (which also owns The Post) last year.

“For people who want to do joint ventures, we’re the first stop,” he said.

Despite two hugely popular hits with Scripps in recent years, he said the door is open to all. “I don’t know that the next one is going to necessarily be with Scripps.”

He’s clearly mulling several project at the moment with the hope of a late-2013 launch. “It would be my hope that we get one of them done this year, in the second half,” he said.